Yemen: Coalition Fails on its Promises to Curtail Violations

(Beirut, August 28, 2018) – Members of the Saudi-led coalition have failed to credibly investigate alleged war crimes, failed to provide civilian victims redress, and failed to end unlawful attacks in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today that analyzed the work of the coalition’s investigative body, the Joint Incidents Assessment Team, over the past two years.

The 67-page report, Hiding Behind the Coalition: Failure to Credibly Investigate and Provide Redress for Unlawful Attacks in Yemen, shows that the Joint Incidents Assessment Team (JIAT) has fallen short of international standards regarding transparency, impartiality, and independence. Established in the wake of mounting evidence of coalition violations in 2016, JIAT has failed even in its limited mandate to assess “claims and accidents” during coalition military operations, failed to conduct thorough laws-of-war analyses and reached dubious conclusions over the past two years. Other avenues to preserve a path to justice should be pursued, including renewing and strengthening the mandate of the UN Human Rights Council’s Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen this September. Yemen should urgently join the International Criminal Court.